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Stage 8: Périgueux – Bergerac, 180.4k
If there’s any stage to complain about, it’s this one. A weekend stage, two hosts close enough together for a TT and in an area hilly enough for a classics-type profile, and we get… a second sprint stage in as many days.Map and profile
Start
A transfer inland has taken the riders into the Périgord, where they will start from its traditional capital, Périgueux. Founded upon the Roman conquest of Gaul as Vesunna, it quickly rose to become the most important town in the area, a status it never relinquished. In the third century, the town followed the familiar pattern of the construction of walls that covered much less ground than had been urbanised during the Pax Romana. Despite a major sack by the Visigoths in the early 5th century, this would form the basis for medieval Périgueux… or rather, half of it. In the 10th century, a second fortified town developed less than a kilometre from the old civitas, around an abbey. This rather nonsensical situation lasted until as late as 1240, when both towns were merged into one, a quarter century after the French conquest of northern Aquitaine (including Périgueux).
The rest of the town’s history is… rather benign. The English briefly regained control during the Hundred Years’ War, but other than that, Périgueux was simply too far from the borders to be troubled much by any wars other than civil ones. The ones that impacted the town the most were the French Wars of Religion, which would culminate in the aforementioned War of the Three Henrys. From 1575 to 1581, the town was occupied by Protestant forces, marking perhaps the most disruptive episode in the town’s history this side of the Middle Ages. Périgueux remained a fairly sleepy town until the arrival of the railway in 1857, and with industrialisation also ensuing, the population more than doubled by the end of the century. On the eve of the Second World War, the French government decided to evacuate most of the population of the Alsace. One of the towns where they were settled was Périgueux, and a significant minority would remain there after the war.
The late 20th century saw population decline, a process which has since been arrested. Modern Périgueux is the capital of the Dordogne department, retains an industrial presence, notably being the place where all French postal stamps are produced, but also relies quite strongly on tourism. The Périgord is a popular destination in general, and its capital plays its part thanks to its well-preserved historic centre (the cathedral is particularly impressive). It has featured in four previous Tours, most recently as the start of a 2017 stage that also finished in Bergerac.
(picture by Père Igor at Wikimedia Commons)
The route
Almost an exact copy of that 2017 stage linking both towns, the only difference is that there’s a 2k loop to pass by the entrance of the (replica of the) Lascaux Caves 40 kilometres into the day. You know, because they’ll look so good from the helicopter. This is also where the race enters the Vézère valley, basically the ground zero of palaeolithic remains in Western Europe. The heart of this remarkable area is Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, which is especially notable as the place where Cro-Magnon remains were first discovered (the name is derived from the rock shelter where their burial site was uncovered in 1868). It is also the location of the Font-de-Gaume cave, containing the most significant cave paintings in the area that have remained accessible to the public.
Les Eyzies is also where the route turns east, away from the valley. The riders now make for Sarlat-la-Canéda, notable for its extremely well-preserved medieval core and the extent to which it gets overrun by tourists in summer. By this point, the riders are close to the Dordogne valley, the backdrop of the remainder of the stage. Immediately after crossing it for the first time, there is a KOM at Côte de Domme, not really worthy of categorisation from this easier side but the criteria are different when a scenic medieval town perched above the river is involved.
Domme is a good introduction to what the rest of the stage will look like – medieval towns and villages, castles, abbeys, all of it overlooking the river. From a cycling perspective, the next point of interest is the intermediate sprint in Saint-Cyprien.
There is also one more KOM to be had, Côte du Buisson-de-Cadouin.
After this climb, the valley slowly becomes wider as the finish draws closer. The looping final kilometres, like almost everything that has come before them, are the same as in 2017. The main things to note are the pretty chunky roundabout at 3.2k to go, as well as the somewhat narrow roads used in the final 2.5 kilometres.
Finish
The origins of Bergerac can be traced back to the construction of a castle in the 11th century, around which a town soon developed. Early on, the production and shipment of wine became a key part of the town’s economy, which remains the case to this day. During the French Wars of Religion, Bergerac was an important centre of Protestantism. One of the many waves of fighting was ended with the Treaty of Bergerac in 1577, which eliminated many of the rights of the Protestants until Henry IV won the throne in the War of the Three Henrys. After Henry’s death, the French royal apparatus increasingly returned to anti-Protestantism, which was probably why Louis XIII ordered the demolition of the city’s fortifications in 1624. And when Protestantism was outlawed once more in 1685, Bergerac was one of the towns that really felt the ensuing mass exodus of most remaining Protestants.
Bergerac became a more provincial town after that, something that was not helped by the decline of the river trade upon the development of the railways. During the First World War, the town became the site of a large gunpowder factory, but the town has proven increasingly unable to sustain industrialisation of that scale. Instead, Bergerac has come to rely to a significant extent on tourism.
In this, its name recognition is helped significantly by a man who had nothing to do with the town – Cyrano de Bergerac. Although the son of the lord of Bergerac, he never set foot in the place, instead rising to become an influential 17th-century author. Nevertheless, he would have been somewhat forgotten by now had it not been for the famous 1897 Edmond Rostand play that is loosely based on his life. The play has been adapted to film many times, with the 1950 version earning an Oscar for best actor and the 1990 one being nominated in five categories (including best actor, but we don’t talk about that one anymore), of which it won best costume design. Bergerac itself has gratefully adopted Cyrano as its own, with a large statue of him in the town centre. As for cycling, this will be the fifth Tour to visit Bergerac, the most recent instance being the aforementioned 2017 sprint stage won by Marcel Kittel. It was his fourth win of that Tour, and few people would have predicted that he only had four wins left in his career at that point…
(picture by Benjamin Smith at Wikimedia Commons)
What to expect?
Once again, echelons are highly unlikely in this part of France, so this stage should be another non-event.
